Mailing addresses are generally classified as either business (or commercial) or residential (or non-business). Many carriers, such as a non-U.S. Postal Service carrier, may apply a surcharge for a mail piece based on the classification of the address for the mail piece. For example, many carriers apply a surcharge when delivering a mail piece to a residential address. These surcharges can add significant cost to the delivery rate for a mail piece.
Typically, a mailer makes a shipping decision by selecting between several carriers based upon costs, such as the delivery rate. Unfortunately, due to surcharges, determining the delivery rate of various carriers when making the shipping decision can be difficult. For example, many carriers do not inform mailers of addresses where surcharges apply or only identify surcharges on outbound shipping manifests. Thus, a mailer is often unable to accurately compare costs of different carriers when making a shipping decision.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to identify the classification of an address prior to shipping to determine if any surcharges may apply. Furthermore, it would be desirable to overcome these and other shortcomings of the prior art.